Jonah 4:5

So Jonah went out of the city,.... Had not the inhabitants of it repented, he had done right to go out of it, and shake the dust of his feet against it; or, in such a case, had he gone out of it, as

So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.

So, when the Lord had taken notice and reproved the passions of Jonah, and made some impression on his mind for the present, Jonah went out of the city; discontented in himself, and doubtful of the issue whether God would be more tender of the life of multitudes or of Jonah’ s credit, the prophet withdrew himself, and waits; how long we have not any ground of conjecture. And sat; put himself into a posture of waiting, and therefore, to repose himself, rather sat than stood. On the east side of the city; which in likelihood was some higher ground, the city standing on the east banks of Tigris; the further he went east, the higher the ground was, and the safer, from the uncertain manner of the city’ s overthrow. Made him a booth; some small and mean shed for shade and shelter, usually made of green boughs. And sat under it in the shadow; these boughs, thus pitched and made into a booth, afforded some shadow, in which Jonah reposed him. Till he might see what would become of the city: by this passage it should seem the forty days were not fully expired, nor yet wanted much of expiring, and Jonah seems resolved there to expect the event of the city.

Jonah 4:5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.Ver. 5. So Jonah went out of the city] As not yet knowing what God might do, though he found him inclinable to show them mercy upon their repentance. Or he might think, haply, that these Ninevites were only sermon sick, penitent indeed for the present, but it was too good to hold long: these seemingly righteous men would soon fall from their righteousness, and then be destroyed, though for present somewhat favoured of God. Mercer reads the text in the pluperfect tense, and makes it a hysteron proteron, thus, exierat autem Ionas; but Jonah had gone out of the city, sc. before he had shown himself so hot and hasty against God, and brawled with him as above. Others think that when he saw which way the squares were like to go, he flung out of the city in a great pout: and if God had fetched him again with a sharp blow on the ear (as Queen Elizabeth did the Earl of Essex, her favourite, when being crossed by her of his will, he uncivilly turned his back, as it were in contempt), he had done him no wrong. But God is longsuffering; he considereth whereof we are made, and with what strong corruptions we are beset. He knows that sin hath a strong heart, and will not easily be done to death; that nothing cleaves more pertinaciously or is more inexpugnable than a strong lust, whether it be worldliness, wantonness, passionateness, pride, ambition, revenge, or the like: these Jebusites will not easily be driven out; these sturdy rebels will hardly be subdued; these stick closest, as a shirt doth to a leprous body, and cannot be done off but with great ado. Now if Jonah be of a choleric constitution, and soon kindled; if this evil of his nature have been confirmed by custom (a second nature); if Satan stir up the coals, and say to him, as the people did to Pilate, "Do as thou ever hast done"; God graciously considereth all this, and beareth with his evil manners. And sat on the east side of the city] Quite out of the precincts; where he might see their ruin, and not suffer with them. Fawkes, after he had laid his train, and set it to work to fire the powder at such an hour, was to have retired himself into George’ s Fields, and there to have beheld the sport. That Jonah was so uncharitable as to wish and wait for the overthrow of Nineveh, and not that they would rather return and live, admits no excuse. But that expecting its overthrow (according to that God had threatened by him), he secured himself by separating from those sinners against their own souls, was well and wisely done of him.

(5) So Jonah went out.—The explanation given in the preceding note avoids the necessity of giving the verb in this clause a pluperfect force, which else would be necessary to account for the prophet’s continued expectation of the destruction of Nineveh after his irritation at the Divine clemency towards it. Booth—i.e., of boughs, like those used at the Feast of Tabernacles. (See next Note.)

Verse 5. So Jonah went out of the city] I believe this refers to what had already passed; and I therefore agree with Bp. Newcome, who translates, "Now Jonah HAD gone out of the city, and HAD sat," c. for there are many instances where verbs in the preterite form have this force, the vau here turning the future into the preterite. And the passage is here to be understood thus: When he had delivered his message he left the city, and went and made himself a tent, or got under some shelter on the east side of the city, and there he was determined to remain till he should see what would become of the city. But when the forty days had expired, and he saw no evidence of the Divine wrath, he became angry, and expostulated with God as above. The fifth verse should be read in a parenthesis, or be considered as beginning the chapter.

5. So Jonah went out of the city] It has been proposed to take the verbs in this verse as pluperfects: “Now Jonah had gone out of the city, and abode on the east side of the city, &c.” The verse will then be a parenthesis introduced to relate what had really taken place before Jonah’s anger and complaint. In point of time it will precede the first verse of the chapter. It is doubtful, however, whether such a rendering is grammatically allowable; nor is there any reason for adopting it. The course of the narrative flows regularly on throughout the chapter. Jonah while still in the city comes to know that Nineveh will be spared. In bitter displeasure he complains to God, and is rebuked (Jonah 4:1-4). Still cherishing the hope of vengeance, fostered possibly by the question in Jonah 4:4, which his distempered mind might interpret to mean, “Do not judge too hastily what My purposes may be,” he will not abandon the city altogether. He will linger yet awhile in its precincts, and watch what its fate shall be. on the east side of the city] where it was skirted by hills. Probably he chose some eminence from which he could command a view of the city. a booth] of twigs and branches, such as the Israelites were directed to dwell in for seven days at the feast of tabernacles (Leviticus 23:42; Nehemiah 8:14-16). Such were the “tabernacles” which St Peter proposed to make on the Mount of Transfiguration. till he might see what would become of the city] We are not told whether this was before or after the forty days had expired. If it was before, then we must suppose that Jonah, and possibly the Ninevites also, had some direct intimation that God would spare the city, and that Jonah in his reluctance to accept the result still tarried in the neighbourhood, in the hope that on the appointed day the blow would fall. If however we suppose that the forty days had elapsed without the threatened judgment being executed, and that it was by this that Jonah and the Ninevites knew that God had repented Him of the evil, we can only conclude that Jonah hoped for some later punishment upon the people of Nineveh, provoked it might be by their speedy relapse into sin. “The days being now past, after which it was time that the things foretold should be accomplished, and His anger as yet taking no effect, Jonah understood that a respite of the evil has been granted them, on their willingness to repent, but thinks that some effect of His displeasure would come, since the pains of their repentance had not equalled their offences. So thinking in himself apparently, he departs from the city, and waits to see what will become of them.”—St Cyr. quoted by Pusey.

So Jonah went out of the city - o, The form of the words implies (as in the English Version), that this took place after Jonah was convinced that God would spare Nineveh; and since there is no

5. Jonah’s reply is not given, but evidently he continued to sulk.